QUEANBEYAN Mayor Tim Overall has taken to breakfast radio in Canberra this morning to announce that backdated rates notices totaling $3.7 million will be waived.
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Council is expected deal with the matter at an extraordinary meeting tomorrow night and quash the invoices, which were issued to ratepayers in July.
Ratepayers have been awaiting a review of the situation from a Senior Counsel (SC) to advise on the legality of writing the rates off. That advice is now with Counsel and will form the basis of tomorrow night’s decision.
The move to issue the invoices was met with widespread anger and public protests from affected ratepayers, some of who were facing bills into the tens of thousands of dollars for backdated water and sewer access charges stretching back to 2009.
Councillors supported a motion put by the mayor in August to place the invoices on hold while they sought a way to write them off. However Mayor Overall and then general manager Gary Chapman maintained that Council had acted within the tight prescriptions of the Local Government Act by issuing the notices.
"The current Local Government Act is quite prescriptive on what Council can and can't do in terms of levied rates,” Cr Overall said in August.
“Council is unable to legally write off the rates and charges, however the Minister of Local Government may be able to provide more advice on this matter and potentially a solution. This may involve a change to the legislation.”
Cr Overall said today that advice remained correct, and the invoices would have to be withdrawn rather than written off.
Cr Jamie Cregan commissioned independent legal advice on the situation and tabled it in Council Chambers in August. That advice raised questions on the initial process used to issue the notices, and Council then referred the whole matter to an SC for another legal opinion.
The ongoing rates saga has proved a tense time for Councillors, Council staff and ratepayers alike. Affected ratepayers have descended on Council meetings in droves over the last three months to protest the notices and also formed a new interest group in the Queanbeyan Ratepayers’ Association. The group announced it would take Council to court last week to challenge the notices.
